Reply To: Question of an ignorant, closed-minded Lubavitcher

Avira,

in the gaons time, the other gedolei yisroel said that his neshoma belonged to the rishonim

And at the Alter Rebbe’s bar mitzva he was registered in the chevra Kadisha and received the title “החכים המופלג תנא ופליג” – a title meaning that he is on the level of the tanaim! (a handwritten copy of the certificate is in the Chabad library)

the gaon was unlike anyone in his time, or for several hundred years prior, and the baal hatanya was after him, so it is not unreasonable for even a chasidishe yid to say that the gaon was bigger than the baal hatanya.

I’m sure some say that the gaon was greater than the Alter Rebbe, but others say differently:

Rav Yaakov Berman, talmid of the Rogachover, related to Rav Yehoshua Mondshine (Chabad historian and researcher): Once, the Rogachover was praising the incredible knowledge of the Vilna Gaon, but he concluded, “אבער קענען לערנען?! דאס האט גיקנענט דער אלטער רבי”

Rav Mondshine also relates that he heard from Rav Shmuel Lazanovsky (I heard this as well from Rav Segal – rosh kolel of Tzemach Tzedek Yerushalaim – who also heard it from Rav Shmuel):
The Avnei Nezer usually referred to the Gra as “haGaon”, and referred to the Baal Hatanya as “haGaon haAmiti.” He once told his grandson that in the Shulchan Aruch Harav you can find more depth than in Biurei haGra, and he showed him fourteen “צריך עיון” that the Gra left unanswered which are answered in Shluchan Aruch Harav.
https://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=24743&st=&pgnum=145

Let’s just drop the “who is a greater gadol game”, because it will get us nowhere.